Continuous furnace.



PATENTED DEG. 24,1907.

E. NORTON & H. O. SHAW.

CONTINUOUS FURNACE.

APPLICATION FILED APR.18, 1905. RENEWED JUNE 6, 1907.

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E. NORTON & H. G. SHAW.

CONTINUOUS FURNACE. APPLICATION FILED APR. 18, 1905. RENEWED JUNE 6. 1907.

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No. 874,530. PATENTED DEC. 24, 1907.

E. NORTON & H. C. SHAW. CONTINUOUS FURNACE.

APPLICATION FILED APR. 18, 1 905 RENEWED JUNE 6. 1907.

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EDWIN NORTON, NEW YORK, N. Y., AND HENRY O. SHAW, OF GLENSHAW, PENNSYLVANIA.

CONTINUOUS FURNACE.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Dec. 24, 1907.

Application filed April 18,1905. Serial No. 256,325. Renewed June 6,1907. Serial No. 377609- To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that we, EDWIN NORTON, a citizen of the United States of America, residing in the city of New York, county and State of New York, and HENRY O. SHAW, a citizen of the United States of America, residing at Glenshaw, in the county of Allegheny and State of Pennsylvania, have invented or discovered new and useful Improvements in Continuous Furnaces, of which the following is a specification.

Our invention relates to blank heating furnaces of the continuous type and is designed more especially for the purposes of heating sheets or plates of metal, preparatory to a subsequent action thereon.

Specifically our invention contemplates the feeding through a heating furnace a series of parallel metal plates or sheets, which travel in a vertical position transversely of the planes which they include. By this arrangement of the sheets or plates we are enabled to make our furnace very short, and still have a much larger number of square feet of metal in the furnace than when the metal is fed in the usual manner in-the planes which they lie. We employ screws which carry the sheets between their threads and gradually advance them through the furnace chamber until they pass beyond their under support, whereupon they. drop into a pocket or pit, from which they are removed.

Referring to the drawings, Figure 1 is a central vertical section of our furnace, portions being in elevation; Fig. 2, a vertical section on the line 2 2 of Fig. 1; Fig. 3, a rear elevation of our furnace; Fig. 4, a horizontal section through the upper screws, parts being in plan; Fig. 5, an end view, partly in section, of the means for adjusting the sheet feeding screws; and Fig. 6, a fragmentary view in vertical section showing an unthreaded rod in place of the lower feed screw.

On the drawings, 1 designates the furnace chamber, which may be heated in any way preferred, the heat traveling oppositely of the movement of the sheets, which is the usual arrangement of blank heating furnaces.

Supported at the front and the rear of the furnace are the two screws 2 and 3, adjustable toward and from each other by the horizontally movable journal blocks 4 secured in place by means shown or any equivalent.

Parallel with the screws 2 and 3 is a third screw 5 which lies below them and includes a vertical plane centrally between them. It is journaled in the housing 6, which is made long enough to wholly support the screw within the chamber; but blocks may be placed beneath the same in the furnace, if found necessary or desirable.

To the rear end of the screws 2 and 3 are secured the worm wheels 7 meshing with the worms 8 on the shaft 9, driven by the motor 10. The shaft 9 drives the shaft 11 through the bevel wheels 12, and the shaft 11 drives the shaft 13 through the bevel wheels 14. The shaft 13 by means of the bevel wheels 15 drives the shaft 16, which by means of the bevel wheels 17 drives the shaft 18. latter has a worm 19 which gears with the worm wheel 20 on the screw 5,. The gearing between the screws is such as to drive them at the same speed, and the direction of their rotation and the direction and pitch of their threads are such as to convey all portions of a metal sheet standing between the threads of the three screws in the same direction and with the same speed. a

The screws 2 and 3 are to be adjusted so that a sheet to be heated will stand vertically between and transversely of the furnace with its opposite edges at the bottom of the screw threads. At the same time the lower edge of the sheet will stand at the bottom of a thread in the screw 5.

It is clear that if sheets are placed so as to be between the threads of all three screws simultaneously and the motor 10 be running, the sheets will be advanced toward the rear of the furnace with uniform speed and that all'parts of the sheet will be advanced without friction or drag; in other words, the feed is positive and uniform for all the sheets.

The screw 5 does not extend entirely to the rear of the furnace as the screws 2 and 3, but ends at the forward edge of the pit 21, having the rearwardly inclined floor 22, down which the sheets 23 slide after dropping off from the screw 5. The sheets should be properly heated when they reach the end of the screw 5 and this will not be difficult to bring about, as the screws can be rotated at such a speed as to keep the sheets in the furnace any length of time; besides, the heat can be increased or diminished and the amount of metal in the furnace varied; the pitch of the threads can be made greater or less and the screw 5 longer or shorter.

We have shown only one screw 5 but it is clear that two or more could be used. Other The screws than 2 and 3 may be provided where the length or thinness or other conditions of the. sheets require additional support.

The screws are all hollow and water cooled. The inlet pipe 24 leads water by the branches 25 into the rear ends of the screws 2 and 3 and the branches 26 lead from the front ends of the screws into the outflow pipe 27, discharging into the funnel 28, which is on top of the waste pipe 29. The rear end of the screw 5 is closed and water is discharged into the rear end of the said screw by the pipe 30. ater is carried off from the screw by the pipe 31 which empties into the said funnel. The funnel provides means for ascertaining whether the cooling fluid is running at all or at the usual rate. The cooling of the screws protects them from the heat of the furnace and lengthens their life, as is obvious. The temperature of the screws can be varied by the rate of flow of the water and its tempera ture.

The sheets may be fed into the furnace by hand or otherwise, through the slot 32 in the top thereof or they may be fed as shown in the application of Henry C. Shaw, Serial No. 254,598, or in any other practical manner.

One or more doors may be provided for the removal of the heated sheets. e have shown the vertically slidable door 33, opposite the pit 21. This door is supported by chains or the like running over drums 34 on the shaft 35, and is counterweighted by the weights 36 suspended from the drum 37 on said shaft 35.

The lower screw or screws may be replaced by magnetic screws as in said application of Henry C. Shaw, or by smooth rods as 30 (Fig. 6) where the sheets will not become too much distorted by friction therewith. Additional guides maybe provided, if necessary, to hold the sheets in proper position.

Having described our invention,we claim 1. In a furnace for heating metal sheets or plates, a pair of rotary screws arranged to advance the opposite edges of the sheets or plates along the furnace chamber, and means for supporting the plates.

2. In a furnace for heating metal sheets or plates, a pair of rotary screws arranged to advance the opposite edges of the sheets or plates along the furnace chamber, means for supporting the plates, the said support being interrupted at a suitable point, whereby the sheets or plates are removed from the zone in which they were heated.

3. In a furnace for heating metal sheets or plates, a pair of rotary screws arranged to advance the opposite edges of the sheets or plates along the furnace chamber, and screw threaded means to support and advance similarly a horizontal edge of each sheet or plate.

4. In a furnace for heating metal sheets or plates, a pair of rotary screws arranged to advance the opposite edges of the sheets or plates along the furnace chamber, and screwthreaded means to support and advance similarly a horizontal edge of each plate or sheet, the said screw-threaded means being interrupted at a suitable point, whereby the sheets or plates are removed from the zone in which they were heated.

5. In a furnace, means for advancing metal sheets or plates therein, said means including screws in the threads of which the opposite edges of the sheets or plates are positioned.

6. In a furnace for heating metal sheets or plates, rotary screw-threaded means for receiving at least three edges of the sheets or plates and advancing them along the furnace chamber.

7. In a furnace for heating metal sheets or plates, a pair of rotary screws arranged to advance the opposite edges of the sheets or plates along the furnace chamber, means for supporting the sheets or plates, said supporting means being interrupted, and a pit at the interruption of the said supporting means to receive the sheets as they fall.

8. In a furnace, means for advancing metal sheets or plates therein, said means including screws in the threads of which the opposite edges of the sheets or plates are positioned, in combination with means for cooling the said screw.

9. In a furnace for heating metal sheets or plates, a plurality of rotary devices spaced apart to form therebetween a passageway for the sheets or plates, and means associated with two or more of said rotary devices to maintain said sheets or plates on edge and to move them along said rotary devices.

10. In a furnace for heating metal sheets or plates on edge, means for maintaining and advancing said sheets or plates on edge through the furnace chamber, said means including a screw-threaded means located within the said chamber and sufliciently below the top thereof so as to support on the top of the threaded means the weight of the sheets or plates between adjacent threadwalls, and means for rotating said threaded means in accordance with the desired speed of advancing said sheets.

Signed at New York, this 10th day of April EDWIN NORTON. WVitnesses:

F. A. ASSMANN, VINCENT J. KOWALSKI.

Signed at Pittsburg, this 17th day of April 1905.

HENRY C. SHAW.

itnesses F. N. BARBER, ANNA R. BEATTY. 

